Fire And Ice: The Dragon Chronicles (Blu-Ray)

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All Rise...

Judge David Johnson is hot like fire and, simultaneously, cold as ice.

The Charge

The battle begins.

Opening Statement

How does this sound to you: a made-for-TV, low budget, fantasy adventure
starring the girl from the TV show Angel and the guy from The Mummy, and helmed by the director of Catwoman. Irresistible, right?

Facts of the Case

Carpia is a peaceful land led by a benevolent king (Arnold Vosloo, The Mummy Returns) and it's currently
under siege by a fearsome fire dragon. Unable to resist its destruction, the
king reluctantly agrees to give up sovereignty and move his peasants into
protective custody with a rival king who happens to be a douche.

The Carpia princess, who (Amy Acker, Dollhouse) doesn't like this one bit,
heads out into the wilderness to track down a legendary dragonslayer. Turns out
that guy's dead, but his son (Tom Wisdom, 300) is up for the challenge.
Unfortunately, the best idea he can come up with is absolutely terrible.

The Evidence

That idea? Calling forth an ice dragon to defeat the fire dragon. That's
right, in order to deliver on the promise of some sweet CGI dragons chasing each
other through the sky for a few minutes, the script demands that the main hero
abandon all reason and sic two horrifying, destructive dragons on a
kingdom already battered to near-death.

Well —SPOILER!— the ice dragon does indeed
triumph over its fiery rival (if these two could have just set aside their
differences, imagine the possibilities!). But, just as you'd expect, instead of
getting screwed over and burned alive, the hapless townsfolk get screwed over
and frozen to death. I suppose that is an improvement, as far as meeting
your end goes, but it's a bitch for tax collection.

As much as they try with their forced accents and Super Duper Serious
expressions of consternation, it's hard to get behind our heroes, thanks to
their doltish maneuvers. Though I have a soft spot for Acker (thanks to
Angel), I have difficulty buying her as a fantasy princess. Tom Wisdom,
who was pretty good as the captain's badass son in 300, simply melts into the background,
overwhelmed by the special effects and John Rhys-Davies'
scenery-masticating.

It shouldn't be terribly surprising that the dragons—the main stars,
for all intents and purposes—fail to suspend disbelief, but I will be a
bit more gracious and excuse the effects artists from CGI Detention. These
aren't Reign of Fire dragons, but they're
sort of fun to look at and just decent enough to almost sort of pass for real
threats to the serfs. However, the big finale—where the ice dragon gets
trapped in a collapsing mountain—is migraine-inducing.

The Blu-ray serves up a decent 1.78:1, 1080p transfer that outclasses the
actual feature its transmitting. This is a bright, colorful film and the
bumped-up resolution and a surprisingly high level of detail give the digital
canvas a nice look. The effects budget does suffer under the microscope of
high-def, but I can live with that. A DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio pushes the sound,
which kicks up a good enough racket during the action moments. A standard-issue
making-of featurette is the lone extra.

Closing Statement

Fire & Ice yet again proves my theory on fantasy films—it's
virtually impossible to craft a believable one on a small budget. The picture
quality is the best thing about this entire release.

The Verdict

Guilty of general mediocrity and dumbass characters.

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